The Certificate Your Hospital Cannot Ask For: India Licenses the Medical Gas, Not the People Who Maintain It
By Arunima Rajan
In an interview with Arunima Rajan, Amit Srivastava, Business Line Manager, Medical Gas, Compressor Technique Customer Center, India , says that India needs a structured certification framework for MGPS technicians and users to ensure they possess the necessary skills to install, operate, and maintain these critical systems safely and in line with international best practices.
You have over three decades of experience in healthcare infrastructure and Medical Gas Pipeline Systems. How has the role and perception of medical gas systems in Indian hospitals evolved over these years, especially post-COVID?
Earlier, medical gas pipeline systems were viewed largely as a background utility, something that supported hospital operations without receiving the same attention as other clinical infrastructure. That perception has changed considerably. The pandemic acted as a turning point, exposing how directly a reliable medical gas system affects patient outcomes, particularly in critical care.
Hospitals today place far greater emphasis on redundancy, real-time monitoring, and compliance with international standards. We are also seeing hospitals take a more holistic view of medical gas infrastructure, focusing on lifecycle reliability and digital monitoring rather than treating it as a standalone utility. Hospitals should plan MGPS with pandemic surge scenarios in mind and ensure the system is maintained by specialised MGPS technicians to guarantee long-term reliability and safety. The conversation has moved from simply installing equipment to building infrastructure capable of supporting future demand.
Indian hospitals often struggle to balance cost pressures with the need to comply with global standards such as NFPA 99, ISO 7396-1, and HTM 02-01. From your experience, what are the most common compliance gaps you see on the ground, and how can hospitals realistically address them?
The biggest challenge is that compliance is sometimes treated as a one-time checklist instead of an ongoing commitment. While hospitals may invest in quality equipment, gaps often emerge in system design, commissioning, documentation, preventive maintenance, and staff training. The most common compliance gaps in Indian hospitals are inadequate monitoring systems, insufficient redundancy, and improper documentation of testing and commissioning as per international standards. Addressing these shortcomings requires a continuous focus on compliance throughout the lifecycle of the medical gas pipeline system.
Hospitals should look beyond the initial purchase price and evaluate the overall value the system delivers over its lifecycle, including reliability, ease of maintenance, service support and energy efficiency. At Atlas Copco, we've seen hospitals achieve better long-term outcomes when procurement decisions are based on lifecycle performance rather than just acquisition cost. A medical gas system is expected to operate reliably for decades, so maintainability, serviceability, and compliance should carry as much weight as the initial investment. This approach ultimately enhances patient safety and operational reliability.
As Business Line Manager for Medical Gas in the Compressor Technique Customer Center, how do you work with hospital planners, biomedical teams, and administrators at the project design stage to ensure MGPS is treated as critical infrastructure rather than a late-stage procurement item?
As Business Line Manager for the Medical Gas Solutions (MGS) Division, I believe MGPS planning should begin from day one of a hospital project rather than being treated as a late-stage procurement item. We work closely with hospital consultants, planners, biomedical teams, and end users during the design stage to ensure the system is aligned with clinical requirements and international standards. Detailed pipeline routing is planned as per international standards, not only as a cost-saving investment but also as a critical measure for risk mitigation. Equally important, the completed MGPS design must be certified by an Authorised Person to ensure compliance, safety, and long-term operational reliability.
Secondary and smaller hospitals are rapidly upgrading their infrastructure but often lack in-house engineering expertise. What practical framework or checklist would you recommend when they evaluate medical gas systems and vendors?
Smaller hospitals do not need to become technical experts to evaluate a medical gas system correctly, but they should ask a few essential questions. Does the vendor manufacture core components in-house or source them externally? Is the system compliant with recognised standards such as HTM 02-01, NFPA 99, or ISO 7396-1, and registered with CDSCO where applicable? What does the after-sales service network look like in the region, and how quickly can support reach the facility in an emergency?
Hospitals should also evaluate total cost of ownership over five to ten years rather than the initial quotation, since long-term reliability and service access tend to matter far more than upfront pricing.
You hold multiple international certifications, including HTM Authorized Person and ASSE credentials. How do these global best practices translate to the Indian regulatory environment, and where do you see the biggest need for alignment or reform?
Global standards are based on one common objective that is ensuring patient safety through well-designed, well-maintained, and properly managed medical gas systems. While India has made significant progress in adopting these practices, there is still scope for greater consistency in implementation. One of the biggest areas requiring alignment is the competency framework. India needs a structured certification framework for MGPS technicians and users to ensure they possess the necessary skills to install, operate, and maintain these critical systems safely and in line with international best practices.
Energy efficiency, uptime, and life cycle costs of compressors and MGPS equipment are becoming boardroom topics. What technological advancements or design choices today can make medical gas systems both safer and more sustainable for Indian hospitals?
Sustainability in medical gas systems extends beyond reducing electricity consumption. The system is designed in such a way that it responds to actual demand instead of running continuously, low pressure and flow loss drying systems that reduce purging loss , and smart controls that allow facility teams to track pressure and flow trends in real time all contribute to safer and more efficient operations. Similarly, modern medical air supply systems equipped with integrated air purification, gas quality monitoring and intelligent controls, along with fully automatic manifolds and remote monitoring solutions such as SmartBox, enable hospitals to improve uptime while giving facility teams better visibility into system performance.
Digital monitoring and remote connectivity have changed how facilities manage these systems, allowing teams to assess system health from a dashboard instead of waiting for a scheduled inspection, which reduces both downtime and operating cost. These design choices are becoming standard expectations rather than optional upgrades.
From your vantage point, what lessons did India's healthcare system learn about medical gas resilience and redundancy during the pandemic, and how far have these lessons actually been implemented in current hospital projects?
The biggest lesson from the pandemic was medical gas infrastructure is as critical as electricity or water in a hospital. Many healthcare facilities realized the importance of redundancy, adequate storage capacity, continuous monitoring, and preventive maintenance. Hospitals that had backup manifolds, emergency reserve systems, and properly sized plant capacity coped far better during the oxygen crisis than those running close to the edge.
Today we are seeing a lot of improvement as new hospital projects are giving more importance to backup systems, automated monitoring, and future-ready infrastructure. The focus now should be on extending these improvements to existing hospitals as well, not just new healthcare projects.
Looking ahead to the next five to ten years, what shifts do you anticipate in the Indian medical gas ecosystem in terms of regulations, technology, and skill building, and what should hospital leadership teams start doing now to future proof their facilities?
Over the next five to ten years, I expect the Indian medical gas ecosystem to see stricter regulatory enforcement, wider adoption of digital and remote-monitoring technology and a stronger push to build a trained technical workforce. Skilled manpower remains one of the sector's most significant constraints and closing that gap will matter as much as any new equipment or standard.
Regulatory bodies are likely to move toward more structured, competency-based authorisation, similar to frameworks already established in International Market. Hospitals that prepare now, rather than reacting later, will be better positioned.
My advice to hospital leadership teams is to treat medical gas infrastructure as a long-term critical healthcare utility rather than a one-time installation. Invest in scalable systems that can be monitored, maintained and upgraded over their lifecycle rather than replaced and invest equally in training in-house biomedical staff, because technology can only be as effective as the people operating it.
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